House extension proposal for Arana House in Rivera del Manzanares, Madrid. Developed for second year architecture design class in Madrid Architecture School, ETSAM.

Memory:

The expansion of Arana house in the Ribera of Manzanares river is a complex project due to a law of conservation of buildings with a certain typology established years after the making of the house. That means that any alteration in the House has to be done now with the actual normative and basically the full house would have to be be modified in the case of intervene in it. That is the reason why the house has not suffered any renewal work from the outside since a long time.

However, the needs of the inhabitants in the house have change through the years, what makes an expansion inevitable. One of the sons, who is a Star Wars figures and models passionate is looking for a bigger room to keep on collecting stuff. From the start, the decision of putting a container in the flat roof of the house was an idea that seemed to work. This kind of industrial element doesn't try to mimic with the house but with the cinematic imaginary that film maker George Lucas created decades ago. The contrast with the house helped to emphasize the idea of an alien ship that rest in the roof.

As the extension is just a prefabricated element that is put on the roof without the need of mayor work, the problem of having a license to build is avoided. The façade of the house itself is not modified and in the worst of the situations if the element has to be removed, this was a task that could easily be done.

The user can access to this pilotis elevated container from the terrace and from his old room through a spiral stairs that connect both spaces. The interior is completely diaphanous so the user can organize the inside of the room depending on his needs thanks to articulated screens. The floor works also as a container so that there is no need of extra furniture to keep things and space is liberated for other purposes. The fact that the container is elevated makes it possible to use the space bellow it during all year long, keeping the user away of rain and sun and becoming an nice place to stay and look a the river from the top of the house.